


Hermione Granger and the Chamber of Secrets

by Chelonie



Series: The Witches of Hogwarts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Chamber of Secrets, BAMF Hermione Granger, Complete, Gaslighting, Gen, Ginny is being gaslit by her own diary, Hermione should be in charge of all the adventures, Hermione will find the books all the books, Horcruxes, Invisibility Cloak (Harry Potter), Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, POV Ginny Weasley, POV Hermione Granger, Parseltongue, gryffindors being gryffindors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-10-25 04:37:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17718173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelonie/pseuds/Chelonie
Summary: "She won't wake," said a soft voice.Hermione jumped and spun around on her knees, her wand pointing at the speaker under the Cloak. If Harry hadn’t also been startled into spinning, she would have given herself away for sure. It was a tall, black-haired boy who was leaning against the nearest pillar. She didn't know this boy, but there was only one person he could be - the Heir of Slytherin.****Hermione and Harry go into the Chamber together. Scenes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from the pov of the girls.





	1. Chapter 1

#  The Common Room

“But surely lots of wixes can speak to snakes!” said Harry.

“Oh no,” said Ron, “It’s not a common gift. Harry, this is bad. People heard you talking to the snake, and that’s what Salazar Slytherin was famous for!”

“But I was just telling it not to attack Justin!” Harry said.

“All we heard was hisses,” Hermione said. “Which isn't bad - it's fascinating! Did you really not know you were speaking a different language?”

“Er… I thought I was speaking English, and the snake just… was listening. Like when you tell an owl where to take your post, or telling a dog to fetch,” Harry said.

“I wonder if you can teach someone else to speak  _ parseltongue?” _ Hermione said. “Say ‘Hello’.”

“Hello,” said Harry.

“No, in  _ parseltongue,”  _ said Hermione. “Maybe you need to think about a snake. Or look at a snake. I could try that spell Malfoy used…”

“Don’t!” Harry said. “Snakes don’t like being summoned. It’ll just be grumpy!” 

Hermione dug through her books, and pulled out  _ Hogwarts: A History,  _ flipping through it until she found a portrait of Salazar Slytherin. “There. He has a snake with him. Can you talk to it?”

Like most wizarding pictures, the pictures in textbooks usually moved around, so the snake looked lifelike. Harry looked at the snake and hissed, ::Hello::

“You did it! Now say ‘Goodbye’,” Hermione said.

Harry focused on the picture and said, ::Goodbye::

“It all sounds like hissing to me,” said Ron.

“I think I can tell a different cadence in the two words,” said Hermione. “Say ‘Hello’ again. I want to try.”

::Hello::

Hermione hissed something, and Harry laughed. “Not remotely correct. ::Hello::”

“Wait… I just remembered that birthday card charm Parvati taught me,” she pulled out a parchment. “I can record you saying different words, and then I can practice.”

So she took out the parchment and wrote down a list of words, and recorded Harry speaking them:

> Hello, Goodbye, Yes, No, Me, You, Please, Thank you, I’m sorry, You’re welcome, My name is Hermione, What is your name?

“Where did you get that list?” Harry asked.

“Whenever I travel with my parents, we have a list of maybe 50 words we learn in the native language. I left out a lot. I guess with a snake we don’t need words about airports or money.” Hermione said.

“What’s an airport?” asked Ron.

“Muggles don’t have international portkeys, so if they want to go to another country, they have to fly,” said Hermione.

“What, on brooms?” asked Ron.

Harry grinned. “Yes. Big giant brooms that hold about 300 muggles, with two pilots that fly them.”H

“You’re mental! They don’t make brooms that big!” Ron said.

Hermione huffed. “Well of course they aren’t  _ really  _ brooms. They are more like hollow birds, and people climb inside, where there are seats for them.”

“Nope! Fred and George put you up to this, didn’t they?” Ron said. “Hollow birds! Dean! Muggles don’t fly in hollow birds, right?”

Dean, who was muggleborn, looked up from his homework. “Huh? No, that’s crazy.”

Harry was laughing so hard his sides hurt. “He’s talking about airplanes, Dean.”

“Oh yeah. Airplanes are real. I guess you could call them hollow birds… but I need to finish my Charms essay. Hermione? Can you look it over for me when I’m done?”

“Of course, Dean,” Hermione said, always flattered to be asked for help. “As long as it’s done before bedtime.” She turned back to her  _ parseltongue  _ project. “This looks so fascinating. I’m going to have to look in the library tomorrow and see if there is anything on the topic.”

“You really want to learn to speak it?” Harry asked.

“To have a gift that one of the Founders had? Of course I do!” Hermione said. “And surely the more people who can do it, the less stigma there will be.”

* * *

#  The Diary

Ginny finally found Tom’s diary in the bottom of Harry’s trunk, and snatched it up, tucking it inside her robes, and running back to her own dorm as fast as she could. Pulling the curtains shut, she took out a quill and wrote in it:

> _ Tom? What did you tell him? _

There were a few awful moments in which her writing just sat there, on the page, until finally, the ink was pulled down into the page, and a single word replaced it.

> _ Ginevra... _

But it was more than her name. She could feel warmth and safety, like a hand stroking her hair. 

> _ We have a lot to talk about. _

She took out her quill trimming knife and pierced her finger, letting a drop of blood fall on the page, as he’d taught her when she first began using the diary. Blood magic was often illegal, but this was only one drop, and it wasn’t like she was using  _ other  _ people’s blood. Once her blood was pulled into the page, she felt herself being pulled in, until she landed in Tom’s parlour.

It was a cozy room, with a fireplace, and an underwater window where filtered sunlight shone through. Tom was sitting on a sofa, reading a book, but he set it aside when she arrived. 

“Come here, Ginevra,” he said, patting the seat next to him. She sat down, and he put an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “I was so worried about you.”

It was the same way one of her brothers might have held and kissed her, but it made her feel all fluttery inside. And sick with guilt. “Tom, I…”

“You’re afraid I told your secrets to Harry Potter.” He turned her so he could look into her eyes. “Ginevra, I  _ never would _ . I promised you. Do you remember the promises we made to each other?”

She lowered her eyes, feeling even worse. “Yes…”

“You promised not to leave me alone,” Tom said. “It’s so terribly lonely in this diary, when no one writes to me. What happened, Ginevra?”

“The people who are being petrified…” Ginny whispered. “I’m scared that it’s me doing it. I’m scared...”  _ I’m scared you’re making me do it…  _ she couldn’t say those words to Tom.

Tom hugged her tightly, and she could feel her tummy flip-flop again in that interesting way that she didn’t completely understand. “Oh Ginevra… what would your parents say? Your brothers? You could get expelled. Or sent to Azkaban…”

Ginny sobbed into his robes.

“You’ll need to keep me closer than ever. It doesn’t matter if your family abandons you. I promise that I never will,” Tom said fiercely. “I will be with you, even if you are sent to prison. You can keep me with you and write to me every day.”

“But… can’t you do something? Magic on me to make me stop?” Ginny said. “Please… I’ll do anything. Just make it stop. I don’t want anyone else to be petrified.”

Tom tilted her chin up, to make her look in his eyes again. “There’s one thing you can do,” he said. “It’ll require you to fully trust me.”

_ I don’t. I don’t trust you.  _ “I do,” she said.

“When you sleep, cut your palm and lay it flat against the diary. Go to sleep with the book open and your hand bleeding into it. That should give me enough power to do something about your problems,” Tom said. “And keep talking to me, every day. Don’t let a day go by without talking to me. Talk to me by day and dream with me at night. Will you do that, Ginevra?”

He held her gaze, and it felt as if he was inside her mind, reading all of her thoughts. And what else could she say but, “.... yes?”

“Good girl,” Tom said, and he kissed her on the forehead.

* * *

#  The Library

“Let’s go over what we have so far,” Percy said.

He and Penny Clearwater sat in a library alcove with a pile of books and a few rolls of parchment. It was particularly quiet with most of the school at the Quidditch match.

“The roosters keep being killed. Every time Hagrid gets new roosters, they are strangled within a few days,” Penny said.

Spiders are acting strange. They’re leaving the castle, leaving the greenhouses, headed towards the Forbidden Forest. Which of course is leading to insect proliferation.” Percy said.

“Targets include a cat - which maybe Mrs Norris was the familiar of a Squib, but I never heard of Slytherin having anything against cats or familiars - a muggle-born first year, a muggle-born second year, and a 500 year dead ghost who was probably not muggle-born since he was nobility,” Penny said. “So it doesn’t seem the monster is  _ only  _ targeting muggle-borns.”

“I’m going to go with animal rather than sentient,” said Percy. “A Gorgon would be more able to select her targets. We’ve got a monster who is just happening upon them as they arrive in the area.”

“Serpentine though, if we’re still thinking it’s something Salazar Slytherin placed,” said Penny.

“I highly doubt it was his. A thousand year old monster? More likely someone’s just using his name,” Percy said.

“The question is… should I go home? Do you think I’m in danger, Percy?” Penny asked. 

Percy swallowed hard. “Merlin, that’s… what do your parents think?”

Penny looked at him incredulously. “Are you kidding, Percy? They’re muggles! If I told them students were being petrified, they’d be so terrified, I would never see the wix world again!”

Percy put a hand on her cheek. “Penny, I really don't know. I want you to be safe, but I don’t want to be separated from you either.”

She leaned in and rested her forehead against Percy’s. “I just wish we knew…” She suddenly jerked up as she saw someone close. “Who was that?”

“I didn’t see…”

“A first or second year girl. She just dropped a book on the table and ran. Kind of looked like your sister,” Penny said.

She picked up the book, and there was a bookmark in it. When she opened the book, she found the entry read:

_ Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents… _

“Percy, this is it!” Penny exclaimed. 

Twenty minutes later, both Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater were in the infirmary, petrified.

* * *

#  The Bathroom

"And then -" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining, "I died."

"How?" said Harry.

"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes..."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely towards the sink in front of her toilet.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione examined every inch of the sink, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

When Harry spoke in _Parseltongue_ and the opening was revealed, Ron gasped, and then screwed up his face.

"I'm going down there," he said. Hermione expected nothing less, with Percy petrified and Ginny down in the chamber. But she grabbed his arm.

"Let's be smart about this," she said. "Someone needs to go tell the teachers what we've found. But the other two should go ahead, and try and find Ginny."  _ In case she’s barely alive.  _ She didn’t say.  _ In case she only has minutes to live and our arrival can make a difference. _

"Once you go down there, the opening will close behind you," Myrtle says. "It always did for that girl."

"What girl?" Harry asked.

"I don't know who it was, she never spoke to me! So rude!" Myrtle said, and then she dove down into her toilet.

"Ron,  _ you  _ should go tell McGonagall, you have a duff wand," Harry said

"No, you should, you can get them back in with parseltongue!" Ron said. "She's my sister, I should go!"

Hermione took out her  _ parseltongue  _ dictionary parchment and touched her wand to it. "Say  _ 'Open'  _ in parseltongue again," she told Harry. He did, and she said  _ Gemini,  _ duplicating the parchment. “Take this with you, Ron.”

“Wait…” Ron said. “Harry, do you have your cloak?”

Harry reached into his bag, which had been left under one of the sinks, and dug under his books. “Yeah, here. You want it?”

“No! When you go down there, one of you go in under the cloak. It probably won’t fool the monster, but there’s still the Heir to deal with. It might let you surprise them,” Ron said. "Just like when you went after Quirrell." Harry had gone after Quirrell first, then a few minutes later, when the potions had reset, Hermione had followed under the Cloak. It had allowed her to put the Professor in a body bind before he could kill Harry.

Harry immediately handed the cloak to Hermione. “You take it. I’m better at defense. You be the sneaky one.”

“Okay, but Ron, get help as fast as you can,” Hermione said. She bundled up the cloak in her arms and jumped down the pipe.   
  
It was the most disgusting, slimy, messy ride ever, and Hermione  _ knew  _ that Hogwarts students would pay money to ride it. Just like a muggle water park. She shot out of the end with a wet thud, and got to her feet. A moment later, Harry slid out. He cast  _ Lumos,  _ and Hermione put the cloak on and followed him.

Hermione wished fleetingly that she was the type of girl who carried mirrors with her, then remembered she was a witch and transfigured a pair of mirror out of a stone. It wasn't a very good mirror - it would have been rubbish for checking makeup - but it would save their lives if it came to it. Hopefully Ron would get help down here in time to find their petrified bodies.  _ What if  _ our  _ skeletons are destined to lie in the chamber forever? Would my parents ever be told? _

_ Stop that, Hermione Jean Granger. You are a lioness, not a fraidy-cat! _

The basilisk skin was terrifying to go past. Then there was the entrance to the chamber. And she shivered as Harry hissed a command at the snakes.

The wall cracked and the halves slid out of sight.

* * *

#  The Chamber

Hermione’s heart was pounding as she followed Harry into the chamber, examining it in her transfigured mirror, going past the rows of pillars. Until they reached the back of the Chamber where a tiny black robed figure lay at the feet of an enormous statue. 

"Ginny," Harry cried, springing to her and dropping to his knees to check her pulse - oh Merlin, he wasn’t checking her pulse, he was shaking her! “Please be alive, please be alive!” Hermione slipped in behind him, waiting for him to  _ stop shaking Ginny _ so she could check her pulse! She finally got a hand on Ginny’s wrist, and felt it. Low and sluggish, but alive. And clearly not Petrified, since she was limp. Near her hand was Ginny’s wand, snapped in half.  _ Who did that to her? _ Hermione put the wand halves in her pocket.

Alive.  _ Alive alive alive _ . 

It was so much more than they’d hoped for when they’d seen that awful message painted on the wall.  _ “Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.” _ They hadn’t even known who it referred to until everyone was returned to their Common Rooms so the prefects could do a head count and find who was missing. When Ron and Fred and George had realised it was Ginny, they broke down. Percy was already petrified in the infirmary, with Penny Clearwater. Hermione had always liked the prickly prefect, who never seemed to quite fit in with his rambunctious siblings. Losing him was a wrench, to the Weasleys, and to Gryffindor house as a whole.

But losing little Ginny Weasley, by turns vivacious or shy or haunted, as the year went on… it gutted everyone. It gutted the Weasleys.

Now to get her out of here before…

"She won't wake," said a soft voice.

Hermione jumped and spun around on her knees, her wand pointing at the speaker from under the Cloak. If Harry hadn’t also been startled into spinning, she would have given herself away for sure. It was a tall, black-haired boy who was leaning against the nearest pillar. She didn't know this boy, but there was only one person he could be - the Heir of Slytherin. 

“Tom? Tom Riddle?” Harry asked. “What do you mean, she won’t wake?” Hermione kept her wand trained on Riddle, beneath the cloak, while Harry asked the questions.

"She's still alive," he said. "But only just." And that sounded like a threat to Hermione.

“Are you a ghost?” Harry asked.

_ He’s a threat!  _ Hermione was screaming in her head. 

“A memory. Preserved in a diary for fifty years,” Tom Riddle said.

He pointed towards the floor, near the statues giant toes. Lying open there was Tom Riddle's diary. 

“Tom, we’ve got to get out of here! There’s a basilisk…!” Harry said.

Tom was staring at Harry with a hungry expression in his eyes. Hermione thought it was pretty obvious that he was as much of a threat as the monster, but Harry was being so…  _ gullible… Gryffindor _ ! “She won’t come until she’s called.”

“How do you know…” Harry put an arm under Ginny’s shoulder, struggling with her weight. Harry was small for her age, making them about the same size.

_ Are you a wizard or not, Harry? Merlin, where is your wand?  _ Hermione thought.

Harry didn’t see it happen, but Hermione did. Tom whispered a word and wandlessly summoned Harry’s wand to him. He started idly twirling Harry’s wand, while Harry struggled to lift Ginny.

_ If I help him, I reveal myself. But if I wait too long, it might be too late for Ginny…  _ It had been easier to act when they'd gone after Quirrell, because there hadn't been a helpless hostage, or a possible basilisk. It had just been her, Harry, and Quirrell.  _We really need the cavalry to arrive about now..._

“Did you see my… Oh, thanks!” Harry reached out his hand for his wand,  _ because he still thinks Tom is his friend. Because boys are stupid, that’s why. _

Tom twirled Harry’s wand one more time and slipped it in his pocket, which, yes, more evidence for  _ boys are stupid  _ but at least meant that Hermione was the only one holding a wand right now, and she was  _ very  _ glad for that.

“I’ve waited a long time for the chance to talk to you, Harry Potter,” Tom said.

“How did Ginny get like this?” Harry asked.

"The diary.  _ My  _ diary. Little Ginny has been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes: how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, how -" Riddle's eyes glinted "- how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her as much as he likes his mudblood friend Hermione…”

"Oh that is such a lie," Harry snapped. "Ginny never called anyone the m- word!"

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly listen troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back, I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me." Riddle laughed, a high, cold laughed that made the hairs stand up on the back of Hermione's neck. “She poured her soul into me. And that’s exactly what I needed - her soul…”

Hermione’s mind raced ahead as Tom went on, monologuing like any villain. Tom was possessing Ginny. So Ginny had been doing it, doing  _ everything, _ under Tom’s control. Under the control of the diary. Hadn’t Ron warned them that books could be dangerous? 

“... she struggled and cried and became  _ very boring.  _ But there isn’t much life left in her. She gave too much of it to me. Enough to let me leave the diary’s pages at last. Enough to let me wait for you. I knew you’d come, Harry Potter,” Tom said. “But where are your other little friends? Ginny’s brother and the mudblood? I thought you were all inseparable?”

“They went to get Dumbledore,” Harry said coolly.

_ Good answer, Harry!   _ Hermione thought.

“Dumbledore’s been driven out of this school by the very  _ memory  _ of me!” Riddle snarled. Huh. A weakness. Keep going, Harry.

“Dumbledore’s closer than you think,” Harry retorted. 

Then music was coming from somewhere. Beautiful, unearthly music - the sort of music that the Pied Piper could play to charm away all the children of Hamelin. The kind of music that would keep the seven princesses dancing all night so that they wore out their shoes. The music that you could party to all night in a faerie glen and discover a hundred years had passed. And then a flash of fire, and a gorgeous bird the size of a swan appeared, and Hermione had never seen anything as beautiful as this…  _ phoenix, it’s a phoenix _ … 

It dropped the Sorting Hat, of all things, at Ginny’s feet, and landed on Harry’s shoulder, and Riddle laughed. “This is all Dumbledore sends his defender? A songbird and an old hat?”

But Hermione felt braver than she ever had in her life. “Expelliarmus,” she whispered, and Harry’s wand came shooting out of Tom’s pocket. Harry caught the wand easily, with Seeker reflexes. Hermione snatched up the Sorting Hat and dropped it directly over the diary, as if she was trapping a spider, and slid her wand under it so that when she flipped the hat upside down, the diary dropped down inside. 

“Who’s there? You can’t! Give me that!” Tom Riddle started to sound scared now. And then he started hissing…  _ parseltongue! It’s parseltongue! _

“Eyes shut!” Harry said, and bless him, he also pulled Ginny’s face against him, to keep her eyes covered too.  _ He’s not entirely stupid. Just too trusting.  _ Hermione hadn’t needed the warning. Tom was calling the basilisk now.

Hermione had read about phoenixes, and the one thing she remembered, was that they could carry heavy loads. And given that it apparated into this chamber, then the Chamber of Secrets wasn’t within the anti-apparition bounds of Hogwarts. So, still holding onto the hat, she wrapped her arms around Harry and Ginny and said, “Take us away, please,” to the phoenix.

Being ~~teleported~~ _apparated_ by a phoenix, felt like being set on fire, except that the flames didn’t hurt. Maybe this was what it felt like for a phoenix on Burning Day. And maybe it shouldn’t be terribly surprising that being flame-apparated by a phoenix dropped you into the floo network. But it surprised Hermione anyway when the three of them tumbled out of a fireplace. 

* * *

#  The Headmaster’s Office

There was a sudden scream of “ _ GINNY _ !” and a weak reply of “Mum?” and Hermione finally decided it was safe to open her eyes. 

They were in an office she hadn’t seen before, but it wasn’t hard to guess whose it was. There were portraits all over the walls that she recognised from  _ Hogwarts: A History  _ of former Heads of the school, and Dumbledore himself was standing behind his desk. Molly Weasley was on the floor hugging her sobbing daughter, and Mr Weasley and Professor McGonagall were there too…

And Hermione was on the floor, covered with slime and mud and soot, and half invisible from the Cloak having fallen partly off… 

She got to her feet and handed the Sorting Hat, still upside down, to Professor Dumbledore. “Ginny has been handling a sentient diary that has done soul damage to her. I hope you can heal her."

“Soul damage!” Arthur Weasley said, and sat down hard in one of the chairs. “Oh my poor little girl!”

The phoenix flew over and landed on the floor next to Ginny, crooning softly to her. It seemed to comfort her, for she put a hand out to the lovely bird and stroked it while her mother stroked her hair.

"And I hope I haven't harmed the Sorting Hat. I didn't think I should touch it," Hermione said.

The Sorting Hat spoke, from upside down, "I look into hundreds of children's souls a year. A couple of soul fragments now won't harm me."

“Please, everyone. Have a seat.  _ Tergeo.”  _ Dumbledore waved a wand, and all of the sewer slime and mud was off of them all. “I’ll order some hot chocolate. Always a good remedy for this sort of situation.” He tapped his wand on the corner of his desk, and a tray appeared, with hot chocolate for everyone, and marshmallows, and the good kind of dunking biscuits.

The Weasleys sat on a sofa, with Ginny between them, and Hermione and Harry squeezed together on another armchair. Professor McGonagall said a charm that Hermione hadn’t heard before, and a glowing blue cat leapt out from her wand, and disappeared through the walls. 

“What was that?” she asked.

“That’s my Patronus,” Professor McGonagall said. “I’ve sent it to tell the other Weasleys that their sister is safe.”

“Oh! Ron! Did he find you? He was supposed to go and find help, while Hermione and me went on ahead!” Harry said. 

“No, I’m afraid he didn’t,” Professor McGonagall said. She sent out another blue cat. “That will let Filius know he is missing.”

Arthur looked up from Ginny, who hadn’t stopped crying. “Harry, Hermione, we owe you a life-debt.”

“You don’t,” Harry said. “You really don’t.” 

Hermione was thinking  _ boys are stupid  _ again, but of  _ course  _ Harry hadn’t read about how life-debts worked, and he’d been raised muggle. He didn’t know they couldn’t be just shrugged off.

“We do,” Molly said. “That’s just how Magic works. But how did you save her?”

“Yes, I believe we are going to need to hear everything, Miss Granger,” Professor McGonagall said.

Hermione exchanged glances with Harry. “Ma’am, it started back at Halloween, when Harry started hearing voices… We should have realised when it came out about him being a  _ parselmouth  _ that it was a snake’s voice he was hearing, but we never heard of a snake petrifying people. And he was so afraid he’d be thought of as crazy, or guilty, or expelled… so we agreed to keep it a secret.”

She and Harry continued with the story, telling about the diary they had found in Myrtle’s bathroom. How they had learned from Tom Riddle’s memories in the diary that it had been Hagrid who had been expelled the last time the Chamber was opened. How the diary had been stolen from Harry’s trunk before they could ask more questions of Tom Riddle. How Percy and Penny Clearwater had been petrified the day of the Quidditch match, proving that the monster would go after pure-bloods as well as muggle-borns. 

“Ginny tried to tell me then,” Harry said. “She was gutted about Percy. It’s not her fault.”

Ginny sobbed harder at this, and buried her face in her Dad’s chest.

“We all knew something was wrong with Ginny,” Hermione said. “But we thought it was because she was afraid of the monster, that it would take her, or another of her brothers. We didn’t know she had the diary, or that she was going into the Chamber....”

“I believe you’re jumping ahead in your story, Miss Granger,” Professor McGonagall said. “What happened after Mr Weasley and Miss Clearwater were petrified?”

“We went to see Hagrid. We were there when the Minister came to arrest him. And he said we should follow the spiders. It was all I could do to stop Harry and Ron from doing that! The spiders were all fleeing the castle and going into the Forbidden Forest! There was no way that anything living in the Forest could be hurting students in the Castle!”

“It is fortunate that you did not follow the spiders,” Dumbledore said. “You might have run into the Acromantula colony that lives there, and they do not take kindly to human visitors, other than Hagrid.”

Harry looked puzzled. “Acromantulas?”

“The descendants of the pet that Hagrid was expelled for keeping in the castle,” Professor Dumbledore said. “They are giant spiders, and they have been known to feast on humans.”

Hermione gave Harry a  _ Told you so!  _ look, but didn’t press that further.

“Instead, we went to the library, and went through the old copies of the Prophet -” said Hermione

“We found out from the old newspapers that the name of the girl who had died fifty years ago was Myrtle Warren. So we thought it must be Myrtle, the ghost who haunts the toilet,” said Harry.

“And when we went to visit Percy, we saw a parchment clenched in his fist, and there was a copied page from a library book, about basilisks,” said Hermione.

Ginny lifted her head and spoke, so faintly they could barely hear her. “I… I left it out. I wanted someone to know. I tried to tell you, but I couldn’t… Tom wouldn’t let me speak. I tried to show it to Percy.”

“It was really brave,” Hermione said.

“No it wasn't!” Ginny said. “Tom made me set the basilisk on them next!” She cried harder than ever.

Hermione took the broken wand out of her pocket. “You broke your wand, didn’t you? So Tom wouldn’t have one to use against someone else?”

Ginny nodded slowly.

“That must’ve been pretty tough to do. Breaking your own wand, while you were losing consciousness. While a dark wizard was draining your soul. Sounds brave to me. That sounds Gryffindor brave,” Hermione said.

“So you found out that Myrtle was the victim from fifty years ago. But we had questioned her before, and searched her bathroom, and we were never able to find a way into the Chamber.” said Professor McGonagall.

“It’s  _ parseltongue _ ,” said Harry. “I was able to open it just with the word ‘Open’. And we sent a recording of me saying it to Ron, so you could still get in after us.”

“But Ron thought of me taking the Cloak and going in behind Harry, to have a tactical advantage over whoever was down there,” Hermione said.

“Speaking of the youngest Mr Weasley, I believe he is on the staircase now,” said Professor Dumbledore.

The door opened, and Professor Flitwick was at the door with Ron - who was covered in rock dust.

“Listen, Hermione… I went to get help, like you said, and I ran into Professor Lockhart. And he was… leaving the castle, with his trunk packed! I asked how he could leave when Ginny was in trouble, and he said he never did any of those things in his book, and only memory charmed the people who really did it. And he was about to memory charm  _ me,  _ so I cast  _ Expelliarmus,  _ only my wand exploded, and part of the corridor collapsed. And that’s why nobody came behind you. It took me forever to dig out of the rubble, using Lockhart’s wand. I was so worried about you!” He sounded terribly out of breath. “Then Professor Flitwick came and said you had found her! Ginny! Are you okay? Really okay?”

Ginny nodded, but didn’t say anything more.

Professor McGonagall waved a wand to clean Ron. “Please, Mr Weasley, have a seat.”

Harry and Hermione continued their story, about meeting the creepy Tom Riddle, who Hermione realised at once was the Heir of Slytherin. They told everything they remembered about what he’d said, and Dumbledore said he would need to extract their memories later to make sure they understood exactly what had happened to Ginny. Harry looked puzzled, but Hermione had read about Penseives before. 

Hermione finally said, “I don’t know why he was so interested in Harry though. He kept mentioning him, over and over, and staring at him like he was dinner. He even said he’d brought Ginny there as a lure for Harry.”

“I imagine Ginny told her diary that Harry defeated Lord Voldemort,” said Dumbledore. “And many years ago, before Voldemort sacrificed his humanity, he was a student at Hogwarts named Tom Riddle.”

Hermione gasped. “We faced  _ Voldemort _ ? Ginny fought  _ Voldemort _ ?” She looked at Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. “Please don’t expel Ginny. It isn’t her fault! And she tried to resist it!”

“I don’t blame her for what happened,” Professor Dumbledore said. “But it will take time before she’s well enough to resume school. When she does, there will be no punishment. Older and wiser wixens than she is have been deceived by Lord Voldemort.”

He took the diary out of his pocket and dropped it on the floor, and then summoned a giant sword out of thin air. “Now, to take care of this….”

“NO!” Hermione cried, and she was so angry that she was at her feet, wand drawn and the point digging into Dumbledore's ribs. “You can’t!”

“Miss Granger, how dare you!” Professor McGonagall said. “100 points from Gryffindor…”

“No, Minerva, belay that,” Dumbledore said. His eyes twinkled, as he put the sword away into non-space. “Let's hear what she has to say.”

“The Sorting Hat said it held his  _ soul _ ! You can’t just destroy someone’s  _ soul _ ! That’s inhumane! I thought you were better than that! Down in the Chamber, that diary was sentient - talking and reasoning. Just like a portrait or a ghost or a talking Hat! Yes, he was completely evil and psychopathic, but if you had a 5th or 6th year student in here who had done those things, you wouldn’t just pull out a sword and off him! You would get him medical help or put him on trial!” Hermione roared. “ _ Put that sword away! _ ”

“Hermione, I don’t think you understand exactly what You-Know-Who has done…” Mr Weasley said faintly.

“No, I wasn’t there in the war. But I’ve  _ read _ . I know the death counts. I know it was brutal. But I also know that  _ no one  _ from then has been executed. Even some of the worst Death Eaters are still alive. Bellatrix Lestrange and Antonin Dolohov are still alive! It’s one thing to kill someone in self-defense, in battle, but if you’re going to do it in cold blood, it shouldn’t be carried out extra-judicially.” Hermione said. “You-Know-Who hasn’t been tried or condemned to death, and this isn’t war. This is  _ school! _ ”

Harry looked back and forth between the diary, between Ginny, who had her face hidden, and then to Dumbledore, swallowed, and said, “I agree with Hermione. I hate Voldemort, and he probably deserves to die, but not in cold blood. And that diary might still have Ginny’s soul tangled up in it.”

Ginny finally looked up, and said faintly, "Please. I don't want to always be like this. I feel like I'm not here."

“Clearly, we need to send the diary to the Unspeakables, and see what they can find out, before any drastic action is taken,” said Professor Flitwick. Hermione could tell that the Headmaster didn’t like that idea, but the Weasleys agreed (Molly quite loudly), McGonagall agreed with Flitwick, and Dumbledore realised that his chance to destroy the diary was gone.

* * *

#  The Great Hall

That night, there was a celebration feast. Not only was the Chamber closed, but the petrified students, cat, and ghost were revived. Poor Colin Creevy had missed most of the school year. Justin had missed nearly as much. Even though the two of them hadn’t been friends before, and Justin was a year ahead of Colin, they were working on a plan to spend the summer together so they could share tutors and get caught up in their respective coursework by the start of next school year. 

Percy and Penny weren’t nearly so far behind, and were confident they could catch up on their own. It was also becoming obvious to everyone else that, even though they were still trying to hide it, the two prefects were in love. 

Harry and Hermione had each been awarded 50 points for going into the Chamber to rescue Ginny. Ron had been awarded 50 for discovering Lockhart’s perfidy. And then Hermione had been awarded another 50 points by Flitwick for “Standing up for justice over vengeance”. Professor McGonagall had said something about Special Awards for Services to the School, but Hermione thought the Headmaster was still a bit too unhappy about losing control over the diary for that. 

He had held Harry back after everyone else, but of course Harry told them all later. He said it was mostly about choices defining who we are, and that Dumbledore had reassured him that he wasn’t like Voldemort, even if he was a  _ parselmouth _ . 

Ginny was seen briefly at the feast, wearing the Sorting Hat. Unlike during Sortings, the Hat had resized itself to fit Ginny perfectly. Hermione wondered if the Hat was able to do something about the damage to Ginny’s soul. Maybe she’d be allowed to wear it all summer. 

“I thought I was going to have to fight the basilisk,” Harry said to Ron later, when it was just the three of them in a corner. 

“That’s crazy! How were you going to do it? Disarm it to death? Tickle jinx?” Ron said.

“I don’t know! Shield spell?” Harry said.

“Our best plan was always to get in and out quickly. I can’t believe you let Riddle get hold of your wand,” Hermione said. “You need a holster or something.”

“I was waiting for the cavalry to show up. We couldn’t have turned our back on Riddle,” Harry said. “But yeah, letting him get hold of my wand was pretty daft. Ginny had the right idea. Of course now she and Ron  _ both  _ need new wands. I know what they are both getting for their birthdays from me.”

“I just _had_ my birthday,” Ron said. “And Ginny’s isn’t until August.”

“Ginny won’t need her wand until school starts again. August is fine. I’ll put some galleons in her name at Ollivanders,” Harry said.

“No. It better be  _ my  _ birthday present to her. If you do it, it’ll just encourage her crush on you,” Hermione said.

“Oh Merlin. She is too young… I am too young!” Harry said. “I still think witches have cooties!”

“No you don’t!” Hermione said.

“Okay, no I don’t, but I don’t, like,  _ fancy  _ anyone. That valentine was seriously mortifying,” Harry said. “Do you fancy anyone yet? And don’t you dare say Lockhart.”

Hermione laughed. “No, that didn’t last past our first class with him. Ron? You?”

Ron looked shifty. “Er… I kind of like witches and wizards both?” he said all in a rush. “I know muggles don’t really approve of that sort of thing…”

“It’s fine, Ron,” said Hermione. 

At the same time Harry said, “We’re not muggles, we’re wix.”

“Anyway, we’ve seen Oliver and Marcus together,” Hermione said.

Harry boggled. “Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint?!”

“You didn’t know?” Ron said. “It’s so obvious. I caught them snogging in the broom shed a few times.”

“What about Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet?” Hermione asked.

“Really?” Harry asked.

“For about three months,” Ron said. “You’re oblivious, mate.”

“It’s a shame Tom Riddle was totally evil and psychotic, because he was awfully fit,” Hermione said, giving a sly look at Harry.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed, with a wistful look on his face. “He could have conquered the world with his smile. And those shoulders…”

Hermione met Ron’s eye and said, “Gay.”

“Dunno, maybe?” Harry said. “Tom Riddle is a bit too murdery for my taste though, even in his young hot bod. And his back of the head face…” He shudders.

Hermione also shudders in memory. “Definitely not a good look. And just think. If he’d just aged normally, he’d be 65 now? That’s young for a wizard.”

“I wonder what he did to himself?” Harry wondered.

“Flight from Death… that’s what Voldemort means,” Hermione said. “Whatever it was, it was all about his fear of death…. I wish the library was open.”

Ron laughed and put his arm around Hermione’s shoulder. “Only you could be at Hogwarts' largest slumber party ever and want to exchange it for a library. There are times for research, and times for drawing rude pictures on the faces of sleeping people, Hermione.”

She looked at Harry, who laughed and said, “I don’t make the rules. I just know not to fall asleep first.”

* * *

#  The Summer

Hermione hated that she couldn’t use magic over the summer, but she could, and did, read everything she could. Once she finished her homework, she went on to study soul magic and immortality. 

She knew it was highly likely to be in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts, if it even existed there at all, but she was also very  _ very  _ good at sourcing books on her own. Flourish and Botts was useless for this sort of thing, but used books stores and jumble shops of all sorts were excellent. She wasn’t brave enough (or foolish enough) to tackle Knockturn Alley without the aid of Polyjuice and an adult disguise, so she commissioned her goblin banker Bagrod to seek out books for her. Some of the books were loans from family vaults. Others outright purchases. 

And before school started in her third year, Hermione Granger discovered something utterly repulsive that explained everything. 

_ Horcrux…. _


	2. Sequel Alert

I've decided to make this a series, called [The Witches of Hogwarts](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1302254).

The second book is [Ginny Weasley and the Dementors of Azkaban](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18442058/chapters/43687970)

**Author's Note:**

> Ron: Books can be dangerous. Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated can burn your eyes out.  
> Hermione: Yeah, but ... _books!_


End file.
